Coach of New York

This year, Bob Glover marked his 35th anniversary of leading the New York Road Runners' running classes -- designing workouts and shepherding legions of after-work runners up, down and around the byways of Central Park.

After returning from Vietnam in 1970, Glover created a running-based fitness program at the YMCA in Rome, N.Y., in exchange for a place to live. His success there led to invitations for him to conduct clinics around the state and the country. Three years later, he became the fitness director of the West Side "Y" in New York City, where he began working with Fred Lebow, president of the nascent New York Road Runners Club. Glover started the first-ever running class for beginners in 1978 with 26 people. Today, he offers classes for eight different levels, from beginner to "super-advanced competitive," each Tuesday and Thursday night, and the classes draw more than 3,000 runners a year.

Glover talked with Running Times on a Tuesday in May before heading to class:

RUNNING TIMES: What informed your coaching when you began?

BOB GLOVER: I ran in high school and college, so I had coaching. I read every book that I could and talked to every person with experience that I could. What makes me different than most coaches is that I was an expert in the fitness field who was a good runner. Most people who go into coaching are fast runners, and they can't relate to the average runner because they don't have the fitness background.

RT: What have you adjusted in your coaching over the years?

BG: What I found is that runners have less and less experience. The main thing with these people is discovering that they can push. So I'll do, for example, six hills rather than 20, because the six hills will make them realize they can run up a hill in a race without falling apart and will improve their form.

Twenty of them, they would start too fast and likely get hurt.

I won't give in to the less-is-more theory that has gone on over the years -- people want things without having to do as much work -- but I'll adjust the workout to reflect that you don't need a lot with the average runner to see improvement. What you need to do is try to minimize injury and have fun.

RT: How do you plan workouts when you have runners training for different events in the same group?

BG: We have a variety of things, keep it interesting, and the group support is fun. You're better off doing a variety of 10 workouts, and really do them, than do something that is perfectly tailored to what you're aiming for, do them alone and not get the same benefit. We have fun and train for races year-round. The group magic works -- you find out you can run faster than you thought you could.

RT: What errors do most runners make?

BG: The biggest problem with runners is they think the grass is greener on the other side of the tracks. They think to get better they have to change things. They have to do something different. If it works, don't fix it, right? If a runner wants to know what to do to get better, I say gradually increase your mileage and improve your races in the shorter distances if you want to improve your marathon.

RT: What personal goals do you have now?

BG: I want to beat Mary Wittenberg (NYRR president) in a race. Performance-level-wise, we're about equal, with her being 15 years younger than me. I'm still running 40 miles a week at age 66.

Essential Workouts

WHO: Coach Bob GloverWHAT: Mile repeatsWHY: To judge race readiness, from 5K to the marathonWHEN: Every three to four weeks in a 12-week training program, and no closer than 10 days before a raceTHE DETAILS: The NYRR classes do mile repeat workouts twice during a 10-week class, usually once on a relatively flat lower loop of Central Park and once on the hilly north loop, which provides a harder test. Most runners complete three or four repeats, with a rest approximately equal to the repeat time. The pace is as fast as you can complete them, keeping all of the repeats the same pace.

"People understand the mile more than anything. When you get splits in a race, it is mile splits; when you calculate your pace, it is minutes per mile. And it is hard to run the last one in the same speed as the first, which is what racing is about."